The reference is to the old Chinese proverb, of course. Did I expect to settle down to a quiet life? What do you think?

Apart from the various medical issues, there are a number of other upcoming activities which have to be addressed, of which writing is, regrettably, only one.

Medical first. I'm at home, popping stupid numbers of pills, although the frequency is dropping per fortnight. This is just as well as some of them taste foul :(

I'm going to the specialist every two weeks for a very detailed checkup. At the checkup, and on the alternate weeks, I'm also having my blood taken so they can check progress. As the steroid levels are decreased they have to watch that some of the other drugs don't overwork so they are checking white blood cell count, etc. It's still no easier finding a vein in my arms - the last visit took four attempts.

Surprisingly, despite the leaflet with the steroids suggesting that I could gain weight, I actually lost 2 kilos/5 pounds the week after I came out of hospital, to make 74 kilos/11st 9 pounds/163 pounds now. I'm eating much larger meals to compensate: I think my metabolic rate has increased since I seem to be more active than I was before this all started.

I have to go to have two CT scans in a week or so, one of my chest and one of my sinuses. This is to give the professor a baseline for any future changes. We're still not sure if the signs on previous chest X-rays have anything to do with the present problem. Oh: and I'll have to do some 'lung function' tests. Not looking forward to that.

I'm not sleeping very well. I am waking somewhere around 03:30-05:00 every morning for a pee and not getting back to sleep again for at least two hours (by which time it's time to wake up again). I think this is due to the general disruption I faced in hospital. Regrettably, it has formed a habit I must figure out how to break. Four hours of sleep a night is just not enough.

Against that, I'm not sleeping so much during the day as I was, much to my own surprise. I have the occasional 2-minute 'fade-out' but that seems to be about all. At least beforedays I did get enough sleep over the 24 hours.

We're moving from a cable broadband system to BT (ADSL). In fact, we have been 'moving' since August 12th but the engineer still hasn't been to install the broadband modem. The reasons for the delay were the absence of an existing BT line and Virgin Media screwing up the number port. This is holding up all kinds of projects since until I find out where the new plant will go I can't reorganize the wiring to suit the new setup.

Unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to partially rewire the house for CAT-5e once the new line is in because nothing is going to be in the right place. This will involve trunking, drilling and grovelling around under floorboards (I have a black belt in data wiring). This means I won't be around for a while (did anyone notice?). While I'm offline though I will still be able to write although I'm not sure how much I'll get done.

There is a whole fence which has to be rebuilt by last March and I need some plastering done as well; the mixer tap in the kitchen is life-expired and, while I have done such feats in the past, replacing this one isn't something I can tackle so I'll need professional help. I'm not looking forward to the plumber's bill...

Oh, and I accidentally let the magic smoke out of one of my motherboards, so I've had to repair an old one to use as a substitute.

Everything seems to have come home to bite me, just when I need a little peace. I've been putting off some of the jobs until the new line is in but after that there's no excuse. Of course, having random hospital visits doesn't help with setting up appointments for tradesmen.

Meh. Nobody promised it would be a quiet life. I'm just relieved that I'm in a position where I can (just about) manage all this. I know some of us have much tougher choices to make.

SEE #94 is about 4,500 words right now. I have plenty of time to think every night (!) so I more or less know what has to be written down. The big problem has been to be in the right place at the right time with an hour or two to spare to concentrate on the plot. Not easy at the moment.

Penny